CD: A very enthusiastic walk. ^^
No homicidal vampire priests, though... we hope.
Jorlem: ...I have ALL THE FILES.
If the Internet died right now, I would not be lacking in entertainment.
Dartz: This suit you more? ^^
**********
Entry 18 (Day 12)
Right. My preparations are completed.
I've spent the last few days going on walks through this city, meandering around, taking in the sights.
I left sort of late on Day 9, so I just walked around the general area that night. It reminds me a lot of how things are around airports on Earth- a lot of temporary lodging, a few places to shop, and a bunch of places to eat.
Fortunately for my sanity, hamburgers exist here. Don't know if they're actually made with beef, but they taste just fine.
On Day 10, I went on a browse around the edges of the industrial sectors at the north edge of town, watching things get made. I've seen similar places back home- heck, I worked in a factory- so the basic concept was familiar to me.
The biggest difference was the efficiency of it all. Back where I worked, the managers were all gung-ho about getting everything lean- shrinking inventory, cutting wait times, working at a steady pace- all that sort of thing. These people have done it, from what I could see. Shipments of materials would come in, and they'd go straight into the machines. No processing, no waiting, no pallets of extras sitting around for later. Product came out the other end at a steady pace- most of it going straight into the next factory over. The rest of it went into trucks, which were loaded up as soon as they parked, and left soon after. It was really a marvelous thing to watch, if you knew what you were seeing.
Day 11 was another visit to the commercial area, over near the residential zones on the southern end of town. I got to poke around all sorts of stores, both little and big. For reasons unknown, the people in this 'verse seem to have a much greater appreciation for (and a lot more examples of) artisan goods. A lot of the smaller stores I went to were either small chain stores, or individual crafters hocking their wares.
I spent the last couple hours in the mega-mall, giving a few places a second look. Aldjthaam's had apparently restocked, so I spent another good chunk of my (rapidly dwindling) funds, and picked up the last few units I needed for my eeeeeevil plan.
...okay, so I spent over an hour back in the arcade. Sue me. They have a mech combat simulator in there!
Today was, honestly, the best day of the lot. I went all over town today, browsing through all the cultural sites I could find.
Well, not all of them. I skipped the first place I came across, since it was the local museum of natural history. Fossils aren't really my thing... though a museum of natural xenohistory might actually be rather interesting. Must look into that.
The Unification War Museum... now that was worth visiting. It wasn't just a collection of static exhibits- there were period vid-files (subtitled in Standard for convenience), computer reconstructions of battles, restored Devices donated by the Saint Church... all sort of interesting things. They even had a painting of Olivie Sägebrecht, the last Sankt Kaiser.
...dang. Vivio's going to be a heartbreaker when she grows up.
The other major stop on my list for the day was the municipal library. A good bit of it was stored electronically, but that just meant that there were city blocks full of books, instead of a small town of them. Before I got to work researching, I spent a full five minutes just dancing around amongst the shelves, doing my best Yomiko impression as I took in the sights and smells of rooms and rooms of old books.
I love libraries. SO MUCH.
Anyway, once I'd finished imbibing the local culture, I took a taxi back home, sat down at my local laptop, and logged into their equivalent of the Internet. Once on the network, I went straight for the Link.
The Link is a communication service I'd heard about- to be more precise, that I couldn't help hearing about- during my research on the Preta. It's an odd combination of personal ad system, forums, blogs, and the ultimate social network. If I called it Usenet on steroids, I'd be right. I'd be equally right to call it Facebook on steroids. It's sort of a one-stop shop.
I'd been playing with the Link for the last couple days, so I quickly navigated to the personals section, and posted the following ad:
Attention: UnoLooking for somebody with a wonderful dream.Requires substantial Numbers, and expertise in lifting very large objects.Rewards should satisfy any applicant, even if their desires have no limit.Contact FP!Loki on AW#7 for details.
With my plan in motion, I then settled in for some well-earned sleep.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
No homicidal vampire priests, though... we hope.
Jorlem: ...I have ALL THE FILES.
If the Internet died right now, I would not be lacking in entertainment.
Dartz: This suit you more? ^^
**********
Entry 18 (Day 12)
Right. My preparations are completed.
I've spent the last few days going on walks through this city, meandering around, taking in the sights.
I left sort of late on Day 9, so I just walked around the general area that night. It reminds me a lot of how things are around airports on Earth- a lot of temporary lodging, a few places to shop, and a bunch of places to eat.
Fortunately for my sanity, hamburgers exist here. Don't know if they're actually made with beef, but they taste just fine.
On Day 10, I went on a browse around the edges of the industrial sectors at the north edge of town, watching things get made. I've seen similar places back home- heck, I worked in a factory- so the basic concept was familiar to me.
The biggest difference was the efficiency of it all. Back where I worked, the managers were all gung-ho about getting everything lean- shrinking inventory, cutting wait times, working at a steady pace- all that sort of thing. These people have done it, from what I could see. Shipments of materials would come in, and they'd go straight into the machines. No processing, no waiting, no pallets of extras sitting around for later. Product came out the other end at a steady pace- most of it going straight into the next factory over. The rest of it went into trucks, which were loaded up as soon as they parked, and left soon after. It was really a marvelous thing to watch, if you knew what you were seeing.
Day 11 was another visit to the commercial area, over near the residential zones on the southern end of town. I got to poke around all sorts of stores, both little and big. For reasons unknown, the people in this 'verse seem to have a much greater appreciation for (and a lot more examples of) artisan goods. A lot of the smaller stores I went to were either small chain stores, or individual crafters hocking their wares.
I spent the last couple hours in the mega-mall, giving a few places a second look. Aldjthaam's had apparently restocked, so I spent another good chunk of my (rapidly dwindling) funds, and picked up the last few units I needed for my eeeeeevil plan.
...okay, so I spent over an hour back in the arcade. Sue me. They have a mech combat simulator in there!
Today was, honestly, the best day of the lot. I went all over town today, browsing through all the cultural sites I could find.
Well, not all of them. I skipped the first place I came across, since it was the local museum of natural history. Fossils aren't really my thing... though a museum of natural xenohistory might actually be rather interesting. Must look into that.
The Unification War Museum... now that was worth visiting. It wasn't just a collection of static exhibits- there were period vid-files (subtitled in Standard for convenience), computer reconstructions of battles, restored Devices donated by the Saint Church... all sort of interesting things. They even had a painting of Olivie Sägebrecht, the last Sankt Kaiser.
...dang. Vivio's going to be a heartbreaker when she grows up.
The other major stop on my list for the day was the municipal library. A good bit of it was stored electronically, but that just meant that there were city blocks full of books, instead of a small town of them. Before I got to work researching, I spent a full five minutes just dancing around amongst the shelves, doing my best Yomiko impression as I took in the sights and smells of rooms and rooms of old books.
I love libraries. SO MUCH.
Anyway, once I'd finished imbibing the local culture, I took a taxi back home, sat down at my local laptop, and logged into their equivalent of the Internet. Once on the network, I went straight for the Link.
The Link is a communication service I'd heard about- to be more precise, that I couldn't help hearing about- during my research on the Preta. It's an odd combination of personal ad system, forums, blogs, and the ultimate social network. If I called it Usenet on steroids, I'd be right. I'd be equally right to call it Facebook on steroids. It's sort of a one-stop shop.
I'd been playing with the Link for the last couple days, so I quickly navigated to the personals section, and posted the following ad:
Attention: UnoLooking for somebody with a wonderful dream.Requires substantial Numbers, and expertise in lifting very large objects.Rewards should satisfy any applicant, even if their desires have no limit.Contact FP!Loki on AW#7 for details.
With my plan in motion, I then settled in for some well-earned sleep.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.